Generally, police officers, firefighters, emergency personnel and/or other emergency rescuers (collectively “first responders”) are dispatched to a scene based on sketchy information gleamed during a civilian's call for help. Upon arrival at the scene, the first responder confirms his/her arrival with the dispatcher at the local precinct and proceeds to assess the situation to resolve the immediate issues. This process may involve interviewing eyewitnesses, the injured party(ies), eye witness(es) and/or requesting additional assistance or auxiliary services, e.g. ambulance units, bomb squad, etc.
The problem is that not until the first responder actually arrives at the scene can he/she make a true assessment of the hidden dangers to him/herself, the alleged victim(s) and/or other third parties. It is also well known in law enforcement that “stable” situations can rapidly deteriorate placing the first responder's personal safety in imminent danger. As such, first responders rely heavily on their partners for coverage from additional threats or dangers that are outside his/her line of vision and/or hearing. On occasion, both partners require additional backup to neutralize the threat(s) where an additional pair of eyes and ears would be extremely helpful in identifying hidden dangers lurking beyond the first responders' line of vision and/or hearing, e.g. from behind.
Although police cars or firefighter's trucks are equipped with two-way radios, a first responder is not always close enough to their vehicles to radio dispatch for backup and/or additional assistance. As a result several officers', firefighters' and/or other first responders' lives are lost in the line of duty. Thus, there exists a need for dispatch to be able to monitor their first responders to ensure that adequate assistance and security coverage are available and/or to supply backup as needed, regardless of whether the first responder is capable of requesting the same. It would also be helpful for dispatch to be able to monitor and view the scene live from the first responder's perspective as they patrol the scene.
Crime scenes are generally fraught with tension as arrestees are unpredictable and often claim false statements and/or use of excessive force by the arresting officer, placing the arresting officer's reputation in an unfavorable light. Police departments have universally attempted to mitigate false allegations by equipping police cars with audiovisual recording equipment used for traffic stops and some arrests. The recorded images and audio assist in deciphering the truth of the allegations concerning the arrest scene, but invariably the scope of the visual recorded images is limited to events occurring directly in front of the police car, where the audiovisual equipment is generally mounted. Events occurring outside that limited scope will not be captured. Thus, it would be helpful for an arresting officer's activities to be captured live and monitored in real-time in an easy, unobtrusive manner providing a permanent record of the events.
This invention satisfies these long felt needs and solves the foregoing problems that the prior art has been unable to solve in a new and novel manner.